350 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



mon centre, and seems full of commotion within itself; 6. From ob- 

 servations made then and afterward at Quito, in South America, that 

 it is not entirely dependent on light reflected from the sun, but must 

 shine partly by its own light. 



These conclusions are given to the public with much diflidence, 

 and with strong arguments to support them, based on a large accumu- 

 lation of facts ascertained by the most careful observation. 



Our chaplain became intensely interested in this investigation, and 

 has recorded three hundred and twenty-eight observations on stereo- 

 typed star-charts, published with the volume. Sometimes, when un- 

 able from sickness to go upon deck, he was carried in his cot, that he 

 might have an opportunity of noticing this intensely interesting phe- 

 nomenon. As the voyage was one which circumnavigated the globe, 

 he had a most favorable opportunity to prosecute his examination ; 

 and his recorded statement embraces a most minute and faithful ac- 

 count of his observations in neai'ly every longitude, and over a tract 

 extending from 41 49' north to 53 48' south latitude. 



After the return of the expedition he sought the earliest occasion 

 to go to Quito, in South America, which is directly on the equator, 

 where he saw the light extending in one continuous arch across the 

 heavens. During his residence there he published several articles in 

 Silliman''s Journal on " The Zodiacal Light," which gave additional 

 interest to the subject. 



If anything since then of importance has appeared in any scientific 

 journal on this subject, we have not met with it. Having for over 

 twenty years considered it, and being anxious that more information 

 and more confirmed conclusions should be arrived at concerning it, 

 we invite the attention of the learned and observing to the considera- 

 tion of this subject. We believe that there is no physical truth which 

 stands isolated, but every new discovery in physical science opens the 

 way for other truths and discoveries. If naturalists can spend days 

 and weeks in examining and commenting on a new discovery in 

 botany or zoology ; if foreign countries are visited, forests and moun- 

 tains traversed, to bring to light some hitherto unknown plant ; if it 

 is a triumph for a naturalist to discover a new species of microscopic 

 animalcula surely it is not time wasted to direct attention to a cos- 

 mical body so interesting as the zodiacal light. 



Astronomical science is full of attractive interest to every lover of 

 Nature. It is not astonishing that the study of the heavens is the 

 oldest natural science. At an early period of the world's history the 

 human eye and intellect were directed, with absorbing interest, to the 

 azure arch above us, amid whose vast expanse orbs of grandeur are 

 unceasingly running their wonderful courses. The stars, beaming 

 with inextinguishable brilliancy, are known to be oceans of flames and 

 centres of worlds, though apparently but points of light. The planets 

 were known to the ancients to be more identified with our world than 



